Northwest Living | Bellingham Real Estate Market

The Building Industry Association of Whatcom County honored several of its members for their contributions to Whatcom County and the local building industry at the Annual Installation Banquet on Wednesday, Dec. 16.

Builder of the Year: Gary Honcoop of Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction was awarded the 2009 builder of the year. Gary and his Partner Roger Roosendaal have been building new homes in Whatcom County for over 30 years and have been members of the Building Industry Association of Whatcom County since 1991.

They are currently building new homes in Liberty Park, located in Ferndale Washington’s east side. They currently have three brand new homes under construction and one pre-sale as well. All three homes are one story becuase of the shortage in the new homes market for one story homes currently. Stop by and see what’s going on in their North Bellingham (Ferndale WA) location.

Some of the other awards handed out at this years Annual Installation Banquet also include the following:

Built Green Builder of the Year: Csaba Horvath of Astal Construction. Horvath has served as an active participant in Built Green since 2006, winning the 2008 Built Green Washington, Western Washington Custom Home of the Year award, a statewide honor based on resource efficiency, design, quality and craftsmanship.

Built Green Associate of the Year: Robert Stockmann, of Pinnacle Inspections for championing Built Green and Northwest EnergyStar as a verifier and advisor through his contributions to Built Green and the Program Development Committee.

Associate MRC Member of the Year: Scott Alderson of Nibs Construction for his contributions to the Master Remodeler’s Council and involvement with this summer’s MRC service projects.

Remodeler of the Year: Pat Rose of Rose Construction. Rose has been an active member of MRC and volunteered time working in the home show, participated in the 2009 service projects retrofitting access for a disabled community member, and in 2009 won three local Remodeling in Excellence awards.

Associate of the Year: Stephanie Artino, of Metcalf Hodges. A member of BIAWC since 2004, she was recently elected to the BIAWC board.

Most Valuable Political Player: Charlie Hudson of Hudson Remodeling was chosen for his leadership with the Governmental Affairs Committee over the past several years, and specifically for research and contributions in Whatcom County’s ongoing dialogue regarding land rights and affordable housing. Hudson will serve as the 2010 President of the Building Industry Association of Whatcom County.

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Bellingham New Homes

Whatcom County - The Whatcom County Association of Realtors (WCAR) are promoting a huge County Wide weekend of open houses through out Whatcom County with well over 600 homes open to the public on both Saturday and Sunday.

One of the biggest open house events being held this weekend will be in the community of Liberty Park in the North Bellingham area of Ferndale, WA. Custom home builder Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction will have seven brand new homes open to the public and for sale. Besides the homes being open to the public R/H Construction will also be putting on a free barbecue for guests & offering some pretty nice door prizes to those who enter a ballot.

Mike Kent will be broadcasting Saturday with his “Radio Real Estate” show live from Liberty Park from 10 AM to 1 PM as well. Mike is also an experienced Realtor that works at the local Windermere Real Estate Company. With this event, the builder is expecting well over 200 people to attend the open house and visitors will be able to view seven of his quality built homes.

If your going to attend any of the open houses this weekend from the County Wide event around Bellingham or Whatcom County, I would definitely put this one on your list. In one stop you can view seven finished homes, enjoy a barbecue, and enter win some great prizes.

Peoples Bank will also be on site as well as Whatcom Land & Title. The builder will be on site to answer any questions about their new homes or if your considering having one built. I will also be at this event as well, because I’m proud to say I have represented Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction new home sales for the past 15 years.

Liberty Park is located just off of W. Smith Rd. between Northwest Rd. & I-5. For more Directions to Liberty Park & a quick Google map visit Liberty Park for Directions. The Liberty Park community is just inside the new city limits of Ferndale, WA.

Update Saturday April 18, 7PM: We had a huge turn out with between 300-350 people in attendance. Here is a link to the Podcast of Liberty Park’s open house on Mike Kent’s Radio Real Estate show conducted Saturday April 18th. Mike thanks for doing your Real Estate Radio show at our Liberty Park open house.

Jerry Campbell - The Muljat Group - Bellingham, WA New Homes

Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction, Inc., a Whatcom County general contractor, is celebrating its 30th anniversary with an open house Saturday, April 18. The public is invited to enjoy food and beverages from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 18 at Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction’s Liberty Park residential community in Ferndale, just a  half mile west of the intersection of Northwest Rd and West Smith Road.

Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction is owned and managed by lifelong county residents Gary Honcoop and Roger Roosendaal. The company offers experience in residential construction, both homes and remodels, commercial, industrial and pre-engineered steel construction.

Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction has successfully completed several residential communities in the Ferndale area: West 54th Lane, Byers Lane, Bellaire Estates and Myers Estates. The company has also built 14 homes on Westview Drive in Lynden and now is focusing on Ferndale’s latest flat-lot neighborhood, Liberty Park. Visit libertyparkhomes.com on line today.

With both partners still active in the business, Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction now has 30 employees. By developing and implementing educational programs and safe operating practices, company employees have worked more than 10 years without a time-loss injury. Via the Bellingham Herald. 

The company headquarters is at 5977 Guide Meridian in Bellingham. For more information, call (360) 398-2800.

Jerry Campbell - The Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Bellingham Home Builders

Initial construction of U.S. homes unexpectedly surged in February, after falling for eight months, according to a government report released Tuesday.Housing starts rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 583,000 last month, up 22% from a revised 477,000 in January, according to the Commerce Department. It was the first time housing starts increased since June, when they rose 11%.

Economists were expecting housing starts to decline to 450,000, according to consensus estimates compiled by Briefing.com. Still, starts are down more than 47% from February 2008, when over 1.1 million new homes broke ground.

New construction of single-family homes, considered the core of the housing market, increased 1.1% to an annual rate of 357,000 versus 353,000 in January.

February’s increase was driven by a nearly 80% increase in construction of multi-family homes. New construction of buildings with 5 or more units increased surged 80% to 212,000 from 118,000 in January. 

Applications for building permits, considered a reliable sign of future construction activity, rose 3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 547,000 last month. Economists were expecting permits to fall to 500,000.

While the surge in new construction was a welcome sign for the nation’s battered housing market, analysts warned that the increase could be short lived.

“With new home sales still falling and the months’ supply at a record, there is no reason for homebuilding to rise,” wrote Ian Sheperdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in a research note. “This is a temporary rebound, not a recovery.”

New home construction surged in the Northeast, jumping nearly 89% last month. Starts also increased in the Midwest and the South.

In the West, where the housing market was overbuilt in the boom years and where there is a glut of foreclosed homes, starts declined nearly 25% versus the previous month.

Jerry Campbell - The Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Bellingham Real Estate

Seattle, WA - Advancements in technology have forever changed many aspects of our lives, especially in our homes. While smart home devices have been around for years now in small numbers, a new breed of computerized products from a new diverse group of suppliers is ready to enter the marketplace. This is good news for developers who, if they add smart home automation systems as a value added service, can expect long-term revenue streams. 

One product example being marketed for homes is a wireless keypad that can activate lighting, arm and disarm a security system, operate a garage door, set off a panic alarm, and change temperatures. It features an elegant, slim design which mounts on any wall where a light switch is desired but electrical wires aren’t available to connect it to.

An LED indicator on the front of the switch visually confirms that a signal has been sent. Applications for the new keypad include the ability to control lighting where a wired switch is not possible and to place the control station anywhere desired, e.g., a desk drawer, bedside or in a detached building for safety purposes.

In the Seattle real estate market there are new homes for sale with high tech features of the future, a smart building technology with premiere interactive software design and networking that provides residential services all with the touch of a button. The interactive network allows owners to utilize the homes amenities, observe security functions and review and communicate various home functions. This is all done through one unified system, a wireless touch screen located in the residence. Features include:

 
• Always on High Speed Internet. With near T-1 speeds to the unit, residents enjoy lightning fast downloads and send and receive music, pictures and videos like never before. 
• High Quality Digital Phone Service. “Ready-to-Go” digital phone service provides owners with flexible service allowing unlimited local and long distance calls as well as advanced digital phone services. 
• Automated Amenities. With the touch of a button residents can retrieve their car from valet, add and remove access rights for guests, access security cameras around the property, place a spa reservation, etc. — Video and Entertainment Services. The television will never be the same with the highest quality digital television on display in each home. Channels are available from around the world.

To help builders generate revenue streams, an idea has been spawn with a new business model that enables developers to generate revenues from advertisers and commissions from nearby service providers that soon reap a return on their smart home investment.

Everybody wins; the resident gets the convenience of smart home automation and value-added services, the developer gets additional revenue streams, and advertisers and local service providers gain access to their customers.

The concept could be used in large condo projects or even some housing communities. Centering on elegant touch-screen control panels, a company could provide residents with a wide variety of smart home features, such as security, lighting and climate control, as well as managing all their music, satellite TV and home theatre entertainment and digital storage systems. In addition it could enable numerous interactive communications and services with the larger community.

For the developer, the system could provide an essential security solution and is also a medium for communicating community news, upcoming events, alerts and general information about the community that would be of interest to residents. For nearby shops, restaurants, sports clubs and service providers the technology provides a medium for them to unobtrusively advertise themselves to their customers.

The old idea of smart home features like climate control and automatic curtains is only a fraction of what today’s technology is capable of, systems today enable developers to provide their residents and local businesses with true value added services which in turn generates an ongoing revenue stream for them.

In our market in Whatcom County, I could see a community system like this being of great value to communities like Semiahmoo Resort, Homestead in Lynden, or one of the future Bellingham communities where residents want community information. Developers are continually pushing the envelope in terms of the level of luxury they are providing for their residents. Now that they can turn what use to be considered an additional cost into a source of revenue, I can see developers adopting smart home solutions for their high end customers.

Smart home technology has generally entailed either large-scale custom solutions for luxury homes, or inexpensive gadgets used by tech-savvy consumers wanting to design and implement the solution themselves. A new range of wireless technologies look set to take the price of automating a home into the middle ground between the two extremes seen previously, meaning that automation is set to become much more affordable, and mass-marketable.

At a time when property development is changing, so too will the minds of business development decision makers. Builders and property developers who view smart home automation systems as a cost-effective value added service and invest in this unique way to conduct business, could be at the forefront of realizing long-term revenue streams.

Jerry Campbell - The Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Whatcom County Real Estate

Puget Sound, WA - When the U.S. housing market hit the skids, home builders in our area that thrived by offering large homes and expensive amenities began to rethink their home designs with an eye toward making smaller, less costly homes.

Three years into the downturn, that trend appears to be intensifying, as many builders scramble to make their wares palatable and affordable to new home buyers and compete with a market full of resale homes and deeply discounted foreclosed homes also on the market. The problem with builders shrinking their floor plans, is the basic fact they actually make less money on the new home because hard costs like lot prices, permit fees and sub contractor prices haven’t moved much at all. 

Puget Sound home builders are taking steps, as the industry seeks to stem losses due to falling home prices, tighter mortgage lending standards and skittish buyers. New home sales fell in August to the slowest pace in 17 years, while the median sale price fell 5.5 percent, but on the plus side sales were up 5.5 percent.

The trend in smaller homes is a reversal of more than two decades of expanding floor plans, during which median size single-family went from less than 1,600 square feet to more than 2,200 square feet.

That steady drive by home builders to deliver increasingly bigger homes peaked during the housing boom. Derided by some as McMansions, these super-sized homes packed with amenities helped drive up home prices even more.

Beyond competing with preowned homes on the market, declining home prices have also made it less profitable to build large homes. Builders need to factor in much more into the equation of building and marketing a home a lot more today than in the past ten years.

The only way to respond to the lower price environment … is to make the home smaller.  As you kind of reduce the floor plan size, we’re getting back to more the way things were historically, kind of undoing the excesses, not just from a price perspective but home size and fewer amenities.

In my Bellingham real estate market, a builder I work closely with, had to re-evaluate the size of homes and amenities in them to make them more affordable towards their demographic market of empty nestors and retirees. After a thorough evaluation of their market they have made the required adjustments to meet the price point that would attract those buyers, without sacrificing quality.

In some markets of Seattle I’ve seen homes, while smaller, feature large open spaces, a so-called great room often linking the living room and dining room area that might have previously been walled off. The homes also have a two-car garage standard and storage space.

Sometimes the builder has to look beyond just the square footage and instead focus on the utility, efficiency and flexibility of the home. It’s all about creating a niche and differentiating your home from the competition. You could have a three-bedroom, 2,500 square-foot single-story home and all you had was wide hallways and bigger rooms. It wasn’t really giving (buyers) the utility.

The bottom line is that builders need to first get back to the basics: What people can afford is the type of home they’re going to buy. If you can add a few extra items to set yourself apart and still have decent margins on the sale, then consider yourself lucky.

Builders will continue to build smaller houses and that’s a function of price, because financing is more difficult to get today.

Home buyers’ tastes, possibly influenced by tighter mortgage lending, are also helping drive the changing trends in new homes.

Big formal entries, high ceilings and lavish light fixtures are also not as high a priority among many buyers these days. In the mid to lower range newer homes, fewer buyers are opting to upgrade from a standard laminate kitchen counter top to a granite counter top.

Builders have also had to downgrade the level of amenities and finishes built into its showcase homes, to reflect the base price of homes.

With move-up buyers, for a long time everybody wanted the biggest house on the biggest lot with the best view and all of the options. What we’re seeing today are instead homes being built instead with a lot fewer options and the size of home considerations.

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Ferndale Homes For Sale

This month we are featuring this brand new two story home in the new community of Liberty Park in North Bellingham. The home is located at 1412 Patriot Lane, which is just inside the city limits of Ferndale, WA.

This home features a covered front porch with a concrete aggregate base, nice rock finish touches, and detail trim finishes giving a taste of that Northwest look. Yard is completely finished w/turf sprinklers, lawn & landscaping. The back yard & garage side yard are already fenced. 

The interior of the home is very comfortable and inviting with high ceilings in the great room and is very elegant & full of custom features throughout. The kitchen has hickory shaker cabinets & large pantry, granite counters; hardwood floors in kitchen, nook, entry & half bath, slate in master bath, vinyl in bath 2 and laundry rooms; & fully wrapped windows.

The home was built by local custom home builder Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction who have been building homes in the Whatcom County area since 1979. You can also see more homes being built in their new homes community at Liberty Park Homes.

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham, WA - Ferndale Homes For Sale

 When I saw this on a home improvement ideas web site about a year ago, I saved the site and didn’t think much about it.  I was just clearing out my faovrite saved web sites the other day and thought it was interesting enough to share here with my readers. What a smart idea having several pull out drawers in your stairs. 

Some genius came up with this idea of installing custom pull out drawers under each step on the stairs.  In the example here the designer is using the space for shoes, but I could see a ton of uses for something like this.  This would be a great storage idea especially for anyone thats building a small two-story home, condominium, or townhome.

In Bellingham WA here our local public officials are attempting to solve the Bellingham affordable housing issues.  I think this would be a great idea for those individuals or families that have to build a small home and need a little extra storage space.

When I first saw this I wondered how the stairs and the storage space would hold up over the years with all the up and down traffic.  According to the article though, the way the stairs are built there really isn’t any difference between this type of construction vs the normal finish.

Another area that a homeownder could pickup on extra storage space is all the area that usually goes unused under the stairs.  So many times over the last fifteen years I’ve watched homes being built and thought that space would be great for storage.  But in most cases its not used at all or just a small closet is put in and the rest of the space is unused behind a wall of drywall.

Well I hope this might give someone an idea for when they go to build a home some day.

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Bellingham WA Real Estate

 Before buying that brand new home you might want to consider a few things as part of the process. In the excitement of looking at a brite and shiny new home, sometimes one forgets to consider some of the following thoughts:

Check builders reputation - Ask your Realtor about the builders reputation, how long have they been building, and maybe some addresses on homes they recently built.  Nothing wrong with making sure they have a good reputation and will stand behind their product.  If you have any doubts, maybe call the local builders association and see what they say as well.

New Home Inspection - If you don’t know the reputation of the builder and especially if their only building a few homes in a community, look into getting an inspection.  Even though the home will go through a full inspection from the permit process, and the builders themselves, Items can be missed.  The builder I represent usually doesn’t mind having one, and looks at it as the final inspection to make sure he didn’t forget anything.  It also saves him the hassle of having to fix something later.  With that said, I usually only see about 1 inspection for every 4 brand new home I’ve sold in the past 15 years. It’s just something to think about and cheap insurance when your out spending $400,000 on a brand new home. 

Builder Warranty - Most builders today will provide at least a one year warranty on the purchase of a new home.  In the state of Washington it’s mandatory that all homes come with at least a one year warranty.  Make sure you read the builders warranty and what it covers.  Ask your Realtor lots of questions on this and how do you go about getting items done if problems do eventually arise.

Walk thru orientation - I’ve been working with a local builder for almost fourteen years and one added feature they provide is a 1-2 hour orientation with the new home buyers.  The builder or one of his reps will go through the entire home and explain how the house works and answers a lot of questions at the time of the walk-thru. It’s a great way to create a nice bond between the builder of the home and the new home buyer.

They don’t call it a walk-thru inspection because that sounds so confrontational to begin with.  Even though during the walk-thru orientation, there are occasional items that are addressed and then completed prior to closing of the home.

Change all the Utilities - within a few days of the closing date make sure you contact all the utility companies and make arrangements to have all the utilities changed into your name.  Sometimes you can avoid costly deposits by doing this while the utilities are still in the builders name.  The other reason you want to do this within a few day of closing, is to avoid having them turned off and then having to pay a fee to have a utility rep come out.  The builder will usually be calling the utilities to take his name off that house on the expected closing date, so I would make these calls.

I’m fortunate to live in an area like Bellingham, WA where most of the builders in the Whatcom County area have pretty good reputations. It’s always good to make sure as a new home buyer to do your home work and due diligence before buying.  When every thing falls in place though, there’s nothing like owning a brand new home.

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham, WA 98225 - Bellingham Real Estate

  The Liberty Park neighborhood located in the North Bellingham area of Ferndale, Washington has announced their Fall 2007 Ferndale open house schedule. The Ferndale community will have open houses every Saturday and Sunday from Noon to 5pm.  Liberty Park will have four brand new two story homes and two one story homes open to the public.

The new Ferndale homes can also be viewed by calling Jerry Campbell 360-739-7779 for a private showing.  At the open houses buyers will be able to experience several finished homes by Roosendaal-Honcoop Const. and all the fine finishes the homes builder provides.  The Quality of an RH Home is unmatched in the price range that they compete against in the Ferndale and North Bellingham new homes market.

The Ferndale New Homes can also be found under the Bellingham Herald open house section of the Sunday newspaper. Go to the open house section and look under The Muljat Group ad for the Bellingham Herald.  The Bellingham Herald also has open house ads on-line by going to Bellingham Herald, then Real Estate, Open Houses and finally click on Home Finder.

Roosendaal-Honcoop Const. have been building fine homes since 1979 and have built close to 150 homes in the North Bellingham area alone.  Some of their finished communities include Bellaire Estates, W. 54th, Byers Lane, Myers Estates and many custom homes in this area of Ferndale, WA.

Stop by one of their open houses and pick up a Liberty Park Packet, home plans, plat map, and much more to help you in your new home buying descisions.  They encourage buyers in the new home market to compare their homes to the rest of the market and you’ll see why they are rated as one of the best builders in Whatcom County.

Jerry Campbell - The Muljat Group - Bellingham, WA - Bellingham Real Estate